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Congress' reaction to AIG bonuses -- am I the only one concerned?
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 19 Mar 2009 20:42:27 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Mary Shaw <mary.shaw () gmail com> Date: March 19, 2009 7:46:27 PM EDT To: dave () farber netSubject: Re: [IP] Congress' reaction to AIG bonuses -- am I the only one concerned?
Assuming that the bonuses are indeed outrageous under the standard of your choice, I would far rather see the contracts invalidated directly than go down the path of writing special punitive legislation. I'm not a contract lawyer, but can't contracts be invalidated if they're contrary to the public interest?
Better, of course, would have been to provide government subsidies only to companies that have used up all of their own resources, including resources that might be used for junkets and bonuses, and to cap total compensation, no matter how packaged or disguised.
Mary Shaw On Thu, Mar 19, 2009 at 6:13 PM, David Farber <dave () farber net> wrote: Begin forwarded message: From: "Savage, Christopher" <ChrisSavage () dwt com> Date: March 19, 2009 5:25:43 PM EDT To: <dave () farber net>Subject: RE: [IP] Congress' reaction to AIG bonuses -- am I the only one concerned?
Dave: A few points: 1. Any comments about whether the bonuses were or were not appropriate under the contracts are without foundation unless one has read the contracts. 2. Even if the bonuses were paid in accordance with the contracts, that does not mean that the contracts themselves are valid and enforceable. There are any number of possible grounds for attacking them in the abstract although, again, without seeing the contracts and knowing the circumstances, it's hard to know which if any might apply. 3. Lauren's comments assume that the individuals who received the bonuses were, in effect, innocent of wrongdoing, either with respect to the underlying mess or with respect to what would be needed to clean it up. If that is true then he might have a point. I have not seen information to show that it is true, however. Chris S. -----Original Message----- From: David Farber [mailto:dave () farber net] Sent: Thursday, March 19, 2009 5:19 PM To: ip Subject: [IP] Congress' reaction to AIG bonuses -- am I the only one concerned? I disagree djf Begin forwarded message: From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com> Date: March 19, 2009 2:04:08 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: Congress' reaction to AIG bonuses -- am I the only one concerned? Dave, I can't be the only person feeling increasingly disturbed by Congress' reaction to the obnoxious AIG bonuses controversy. I believe we all pretty much agree that the bonuses were utterly inappropriate to be contracted when they were ... but the fact is that they *were* contracted, and work was done on the basis of those contracts (much of which is now completed, and the relevant persons departed as planned). We now know it was the Obama Treasury Department that requested the language honoring those bonuses (despite righteous indignation we're hearing now from the administration about the bonuses -- after the story blew up). It's particularly chilling to hear Congress talking about special targeted 90% or 95% taxes to try suck back the bonuses from individuals at this stage of the game. It's completely appropriate to recover the funds from AIG, but retroactively going after the individuals who worked under legal contract terms -- in expectation of being paid under those terms -- seems to me to set a terrible precedent. Emotions are running wild over logic. I'm a big supporter of Obama, but the AIG situation seems to me to have become overly personalized, and now members of Congress are trying to out posture each other with "get tough" reactions, some of which seem to be very poorly thought out (surprise! surprise!) and could do even more damage. Am I alone in thinking that the situation is becoming chaotic, with many of the negative ramifications associated with such chaos? --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein lauren () vortex com Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 http://www.pfir.org/lauren Co-Founder, PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org Co-Founder, NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org Founder, GCTIP - Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance - http://www.gctip.org Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com ------------------------------------------- Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com ------------------------------------------- Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com ------------------------------------------- Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
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- Congress' reaction to AIG bonuses -- am I the only one concerned? David Farber (Mar 19)